Sunday, November 11, 2012

Hey lovelies! Today I'm very excited to share with you a tutorial that I've literally had on my to-do list for years. For some reason I just felt like the timing/concept wasn't right, but I guess that's why it's never a bad idea to wait for things to fall into place naturally. :)

The look, of course, is how to apply makeup with glasses. Sometimes glasses can be the shlumpy option that you wear as a last resort or when you want to cover up a no-makeup face, but in true "From Head To Toe" fashion I instead wanted to twist my look into something that's more everyday glamorous that you can feel very fresh, defined, and confident with.

Glasses are an interesting thing because yes, it does improve your eyesight, but it also tends to hide your eyes behind thick frames. Depending on your prescription, the glass can actually warp the size and shape of your eyes as well so it's important to use contrast to persuade what parts of your face the viewer will look at.

To do this I used two of my favorite makeup tools, black and white eyeliner. I also used matte skin and glittery lips to emphasize and de-emphasize certain areas of my face to balance the frames. Here you can see the exaggerated cat eye of my black winged eyeliner, creating the illusion of larger eyes.

Although the look is heavier than my everyday makeup without glasses, once the frames are on my face, it looks flirty and emphasizes the eyes behind the glass. You can see how the darker brows, thicker lower lash-line eyeliner, and white shimmery tearduct colors all work together.

Because I know that not everyone has trendy emo-style glasses to automatically make the look more fashionable, I wanted to show how this makeup looks with a variety of glasses styles. The main ones I'm wearing here are from Pretty & Cute a couple years ago. I can't find the exact style but they do have a small section of ulzzang glasses.

This next one is a recent purchase from Forever 21 in the men's section. Oddly enough, I'm convinced these are actually women's glasses since they fit my small head while looking totally silly and tiny on my husband.

This third pair below is Burberry 2079 (similar grey/gunmetal) and actually does belong to my husband since he wears prescription glasses. Even though these lenses make my eyes smaller, the lengthened and thickened eyeliner hides the fact. I actually really like these lenses on me! :)

This last pair is also my husband's D&G 5034 (similar here and here) and funnily enough almost in the exact same pose! It was super tricky keeping the light out of the reflection on the lenses for photos so it turns out only a few angles would work well for these pics.

A lighting trick for you glasses wearers and photographers is to tilt the back of your glasses upward in photos. That way, the lenses look clear and even dramatic tilts aren't noticeable in pics!

Now go back and look: In which photos were my glasses tilted higher than my ears?

Finally, one last obligatory silly pic. ;D

Thank you guys so much for reading and I hope these tips were helpful! More than just a pretty make up look, I want to make sure my tutorials make sense for the situation and are actually user-friendly to recreate so definitely let me know if you decided to try this out. :)

Do you do anything special with your makeup when wearing glasses? Have any tips for other glasses-wearers? Share your knowledge in the comments!

Love the makeup with or without glasses! I can't wear much product on my lower lash line because after a few hours everything smudges, so I mostly concentrate everything on my upper lid ^^ Thanks a lot for sharing your take on this particular look xx

I have two of the types you show here, and I love love love that showed different styles and how they work on each! Totally love the makeup, definitely will have to try it! You look so adorable with the glasses :)

Thanks so much Jen for posting this tutorial. I'm a monolid gal who wears glasses...and have often opted to skip eye make up since I thought the glasses would hide the look. I think I'll give eye make up a try more! ~ Phoebe

love it! I wear glasses almost all the time and I'm nearsighted, so that makes my eyes look smaller. I have been wanting a regular look but one that looked like I actually put makeup on. I'm often told that my look is very "natural", which while I like it, I actually DO put on makeup so I'm wondering if my frames had downplayed the look.

The inner eye shimmer is a great trick I'd like to try. My frames are more like your husband's. Thanks for the blush info too, as I always wondered how to do blush when my frames fall a little into my cheeks.

I'm going to try this look out and report back! I don't have monolids, as I'm East Indian, so I hope the look won't be too dramatic (I may have to thin the eyeliner line a bit)

hey jen, this was really helpful, since I wear glasses on a daily basis! I've been wondering, since I'm a makeup beginner, could you do a post on the basic products everyone needs? With recommendations? Like a starter's kit I suppose. Preferably affordable :)

Jen, this is seriously THE best glasses makeup tutorial ever. It's the most user-friendly and occasion appropriate that I could find for me personally. I can totally rock this look at work, out with friends or the hubby or even everyday. It's not too dramatic and I love that!! Thanks so much for taking the time to create such a fun and pretty look! My geeky 4-eyes face thanks you! XD I definitely plan on re-creating this later this week!! *So excited!*

Thanks so much for this tutorial and I had a light and nice makeup for my graduation day.

Now I have intention to use contact lens and my problem is that I am having heavy hooded eyes. People said that my eyes had problem but when I saw my past photos, I had already had them for more than 20 years, almost born with hooded eyes.

I also used stickers to raised skin there to see my lids but I got sore eyes and felt uncomfortable later. I am upset about that. Besides, I hardly wear mascara since it always got stuck to my crease area. Moreover, I can not wear eye liner since it would leave a dark line on crease area.

I need your help for fixing this problem. If you don't mind, please create a

This looks AMAZING - I think it's the nicest "makeup for glasses" tutorial I've seen so far! Very reasonable, if you get what I mean (because it is noticeable, wearable, and flattering). I love your videos! Keep up the awesome work!

This is so great! As a 24/7 glasses wearing girl, I usually end up going with a bold lip instead of doing anything with my eyes because I have difficulty in coming up with something that makes my eyes stand out. But this tutorial is amazing! It's simple and the effect is very flattering, so I'll definitely be trying it out. :)